Saturday, December 31, 2011

John Lee: Moving Back One Generation

New Year's Resolution:  Family History goes to the top of the list.  It's only December 31st, but a good time to start the 2012 resolution.
It might be a good idea to go back now and look at the "Lee Line Pedigree Chart" found on the top of blog in a heading.  It is time to move back one generation to John Lee who is the father of Thomas Henry Lee (Henry Lee-Thomas). 
There's some opportunity for confusion with this line so I'm going to move slowly through it and explain things as I go.  The link below is the birth certificate for John Lee.  It is interesting, as you will see,  how much information my grandma Ruby had gathered on this family.  She had limited income and had to do all of this via letters going and coming by boat.  It appears by some of her correspondence that she actually paid for some of the research.  Amazing!!

Link to Birth Certificate:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10071252/Birth%20Certificate%2C%20John%20Lee.pdf

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Australia War Memorial: Roll of Honor Project

I did contact the Australia War Memorial and heard back from a very nice man who wishes to have a photo of Corporal Henry Lee-Thomas to add to their Roll of Honor Project.  I sent him some examples of the photos in my possession and he wishes to have the family portrait of Henry, Ruby, and my dad. (It is in one of the earlier posts).   He says it is a beautiful portrait. The photo is in very good condition considering that it has to be near 95 years old.   It does have Henry in his uniform.  This is a great way to memorialize and honor Henry, Ruby, and Maurice.  The Australia project does have some guidelines for me to follow in scanning the pictures and they must be sent to them on a DVD.  It may take a few weeks before this picture actually appears in their collection.  I will let you all know when it is there.

Yes, it is very interesting where this Family History journal takes you.  I would have never thought that I would be contributing to such a collection.  I wonder what lies ahead???  I need to get busy so that some more of the photos and documents I have can be shared with all of you great family and other interested persons.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Henry Lee-Thomas: More Information

About the time I think it's time to move on to another family, I learn a bit more to share about the current people.  I had a response from my previous post telling me that the Australian War Memorial might be interested in the photos that Henry Lee-Thomas sent home from WW1.  I've been to that Web Site just now and they do have records of Henry and I went on to find a picture of the cemetery in Belgium where he is buried and some more war records.  The two web sites are:  Simply search on his name.
http://www.awm.gov.au (war memorial)
http://www.cwgc.org/ (grave information)
I have sent an e-mail to the Australian War Memorial to see if they would like copies of the photo albums.  Amazing where this Family History journey takes you.

P.S.  One of my daughters asked me when I was going to post more of the tape recorded history of Maurice Lee-Thomas.  That which I have posted is all there is to that recording.  Sad, isn't it?  So now let's all get busy on keeping a journal or some record of our lives.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Henry Lee-Thomas: World War 1 Photos

Henry Lee-Thomas sent home two small photo albums and a post card from World War 1.  These have  fallen in to my hands and are in unusually good shape considering their age.    These are the original albums which were mailed home in 1915 and 1916.  That makes them almost 100 years old.  I have just scanned them today and want to share with everyone.  The first album was sent to Myrtle Moore  (Myrtle Thredgold) who was Henry's sister-in-law and Ruby Thredgold's sister.  The second album was to a "Miss Pickering."  I have no idea who this person was.  The last two photos are of a post card which Henry sent to his wife and baby.  (Ruby and Maurice).  The post card caption says, "The Strafer Strafed."  I looked up "Strafer" on "google" and found the following definition:

Verb:  To attack (ground troops for example) with gun or cannon from a low flying aircraft.
Noun:  An atttack of machine gun or cannon fire from low flying aircraft.
Common World War 1 slogan. 

This will make sense when you see the last photo.  Here is the link to this group of photos:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10071252/Wold%20War%201%20Henry%20Lee-Thomas.pdf

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Maurice Lee-Thomas: More Photos

Once again life has interrupted blog posts.  We recently spent a week of relaxing in Kentucky where the opportunity presented itself for some pictures and Family History organizing.  Some more picture of Maurice were discovered which you all may be interested in. 

The first two pictures are of  Maurice with his two children when they were very young. The picture with the baby girl (me) would have been 1944.  The other picture with the boy (Steve) and girl (me) looks like about 1948.   Here's the link to those pictures:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10071252/Maurice%20%26%20Florence%20with%20Mary%20Margaret%201944.pdf

The next group is three pictures.  The first is a picture of Maurice & Florence in front of their home at 511 Seventh Street in Ogden, Utah.  My best guess is the mid 1960's.  The second picture is Maurice & Florence in San Francisco in 1940.  The third picture is the prize winner:  Maurice, Florence, Steve, Mary M., Grandma Christensen in front of the Maddox Restaurant in Perry, Utah.  My best estimate would be 1953/4. 
Here they are:  http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10071252/Family%20at%20Maddox.pdf

These next ones are scans of two post cards that Maurice received when he was in Australia and his Aunt (Myrtle Thredgold Moore, sister of Ruby Thredgold) sent them to him from Ogden, Utah.  They were sent to Ada Street in Adelaide where Maurice was living at the time.  The date on these is 1915/16.  Here is this link:  http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10071252/Maurice%20-%20Post%20Cards.pdf

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Visit from Aussie "Rellies"

This past week my husband and I had a wonderful four day vacation with one of my Aussie second cousins on the Lee side of the family.  We had met my cousin and his wife when we were in Australia three years ago.  Years ago, one of the Australian's on the Lee side had been searching for my brother and I for many years.  She knew that our grandfather, who was killed in WWI, had a wife and son who immigrated to America. We were the only branch of the Lee's of which there was little known in Australia.   After much searching, she found us and started communication.  Over the years she passed away and her family history information fell into the hands of Alan.  He then reached me and we started communication concerning family history and getting acquainted via e-mail.  My husband and I had the privilege of meeting and staying with Alan and his wife Carol when we visited Australia.  Now they have paid us a visit for which I am very thankful.  We are working together to pull this history together.  I know that my father, Maurice and grandfather, Henry must have been thrilled at this opportunity Alan and I had to be together.  We're all "Rellies."

Alan and Carol with their American Family.

Margaret and my second cousin Alan at the grave of my father, Maurice.  

Carol and Alan at Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park.

Ray and Margaret with Carol and Alan in Yellowstone. 



Thursday, August 11, 2011

Death of Maurice Lee-Thomas

Maurice left this life in Los Angeles, California on 8 June 1983.    He had been attending the Los Angeles Temple with his wife Florence.  They had finished their work at the temple and were packing their bags to return to their home in Visalia, California.  Maurice was putting bags in the car, when he collapsed and never recovered.  He was taken to UCLA Medical Center where he died. The cause of death was a heart attack.   Florence was watching him from their motel window and witnessed his collapse.  Florence reported that most deaths in Los Angeles were considered homiscides until proved otherwise.  He took some time and frustration to get his body released from UCLA. 

He had two funerals.  The first was in Visalia, California where he was residing at the time of his death.  The second funeral was held in Ogden, Utah where he had spent most of his life since immigrating to America and where he and Florence had purchase burial plots in the Ogden City Cemetery.  The link below will take you to his Obituary, funeral programs, and death certifciate.  The second link is a picture of the cemetery where he is buried along the side of his wife, Florence Christensen.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10071252/Lee-Thomas%2C%20Maurice%20-%20Death%20Information.pdf
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10071252/Ogden%20City%20Cemetery%20Graves.JPG

Sunday, July 31, 2011

2011 BYU Family History Conference

What a wonderful week!!  Not only was it a week of inspiration and learning, but it was spent with my wonderful daughter, Marie.  We spent from July 25 to July 29 at BYU's annual Family History Conference.  This year's theme was, "Strengthening Ties that Bind, Families Together Forever."   We heard from keynote speakers, Dennis Simmons, (Church Authority)  D. Joshua Taylor, (NEHGS) and Ransom Love, from Family Search.  They were all amazing.  Marie and I took classes on Power Point, Excel, Preserving, Tracking English, Ancestors and every class taught by Joshua Taylor.  He is amazing!

The car gets parked when we arrive and not used again until we are ready to leave.  We walk everywhere and spend our evenings out browsing around the campus.  Each building is a story of it's own with displays, artifacts, and hours of browsing possibilities.  I could stay on that campus for days.  Of course, we ate at the Creamery two times and the Brick Oven once.  It's a good thing we do much walking.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Maurice Lee-Thomas: Photos

Here are a four photos of Maurice.    Note the snow in the background on the two pictures which I believe to be either prior or soon after his marriage.  The picture was taken in Ogden, Utah at the home of Florence Christensen's parents (Andrew and Mary), 529 Seventh Street.  The picture by the old car was taken at the same place, but the snow is gone.  He looks to be close to the same age so probably taken in the mid 1930's.  The railroad picture is an unknown date.  I need to find out when he started working for the railroad and that will give a clue.  Hope everyone enjoys these pictures.  I have a few more to be forthcoming.  Here is the link:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10071252/Pictures%20of%20Maurice%20Lee-Thomas.pdf

Monday, July 18, 2011

Deseret News Article

This was a huge surprise!! My Blog was featured in the Salt Lake City Desert News on Thursday, July 14.  The lady who wrote the article called me one day, said she wanted to do a newspaper article on blogs, and had found mine.  It caught her interest.  I really couldn't believe it.  Anyway , she interviewed me and here is a link to the article.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700151617/?s_cid=document-suggest

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Some Thoughts on America

July 2, 2010 was the annual "Stadium of Fire" at the BYU football stadium.  It has been a family tradition now for the past 20 years to attend this annual event.  It is a very inspiring patriotic program and has become such a tradition that we may as well cancel Christmas as this summer event.  Each year during the fireworks display, the song from Neil Diamond, "Coming to America" is played.  That always brings tears to my eyes as I think about my ancestors who "traveled far" and suffered much hard ship to come to America.  It took much sacrifice for them to leave their families and everything familiar to come to a new land and life was not easy for them even after they arrived in America.  How grateful I am to all of them.  I love America and am comforted to know that our country has a divine destiny and that righteousness and America will prevail.

From Ruby Thredgold's journal I quote: "  It was a great undertaking to sell up everything and make preparations to move so many of us across the seas. . . .I could spend hours and many pages writing, telling of the sacrifice and hard work.  It was going to take a lot of money to get us across the huge basin of water.
After selling all we had , and nothing left to manage with, we lived our last six weeks in Australia."  They sailed on the U. S. Sierra.  "It was 11:00 am on the 1st day of November 1930 that we sailed out of the beautiful Sydney Harbor into the great Pacific Ocean.  We arrived in San Francisco on the 20th of November 1930."

You can listen to Neil Diamond's "Coming to America." on "youtube."

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Maurice Reginald Lee-Thomas: Personal History

Maurice had started his personal history by tape recording.  The recordings were left along with the Family History that was saved and passed on to his children.  The recording was made in 1979, he died in 1983, and the tapes were transcribed in 2006.  It was 23 years from the time of his death until this recording was transcribed.  It was quite an experience for me to transcribe this tape and hear the voice which I hadn't heard in 23 years. It is amazing that these recordings were still in good condition after so many years.  Here is a link to the transcription. 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10071252/LIFE%20HISTORY%20OF%20MARUICE%20REGINALD%20LEE.doc

Monday, June 20, 2011

Marriage of Maurice Reginald Lee-Thomas

Maurice Reginald Lee-Thomas married Florence Christensen on 30 June 1933.  They were married in the Salt Lake Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  They were married by Heber J. Grant who was President of the Church at that time.  Notice that Heber J. Grant's signature is on the marriage certificate and the marriage license.  In this link there is also a copy of a hand written invitation to their wedding reception.  It would be 99% sure that this was my mother's (Florence Christensen's) handwriting.  The place of the reception was at 529 Seventh Street.  This was the home of Florence and her parents.  It was also the place where Maurice and Florence lived after their marriage.  The link below will take you to this marriage information. 


http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10071252/Marriage%20Maurice%20Lee-Thomas.pdf

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Henry Lee-Thomas: Complete Military Record

The complete military record of Henry Lee-Thomas can be viewed at the Australia National Archive website:
http://www.naa.gov.au/.  Here are the steps:

naa.gov.au > name search > record search > basic search > Henry Lee Thomas > from 1913 - 1918 > view digital copy.  I just did this a few minutes ago and there are 114 pages.  It seems that there are many duplicates. I did not go through all of the pages, but will when there is more time.

The Australia relative (M. Field) from my previous post reminded me of this.  Thanks!!

Interesting Things Happen

Last Sunday, my daughter-in-law received a Facebook post from a previous neighbor concerning a visit the neighbor was having with a Thredgold Australia relative.  Immediately, I heard about this post and started some detective work.  Within a short period of time, I had found out who was visiting who.  This detective work put me in touch with a relative I met two years ago, C.S. Thredgold, who knew exactly what was going on.  Via e-mail,   I told her about this Blog.    Now another relative from Australia  (who I didn't know about before, M Field) has reached me via this blog because of my communication with C.S.      What a small world the Internet has made.  This all happened within just a few days.  Interesting things do happen with Family History.

Monday, May 30, 2011

Maurice Reginald Lee-Thomas Sails to America

Maurice left for America on 26 April 1930.  He set sail by himself.  His other family membes had come a while before him.  He left many behind in Australia who he would never see again.  It's hard to imagine, but the call to America must have been over-riding of the desire to stay in Australia with the loved ones there.  "Courage" is the word I would use to describe this.  He was only 17 years old.  Here is the link to his Identification Check with the Matson Navigation Company to sail on the ship, "Sierra."

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10071252/Lee-Thomas%2C%20Maurice%20-%20Matson%20Navigation%20Company.pdf

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Maurice Reginald Lee-Thomas

All of the pertinent information about Thomas Henry Lee that I have is now posted.

 So now let's turn our hearts to my father, Maurice Reginald Lee-Thomas (b. 6 May 1913).  He  was the only son born to Thomas Henry Lee (Henry Lee-Thomas) and Ruby Thredgold.  Ruby went on to have five other children by a second marriage. Therefore, he has five half brothers and sisters. Maurice was called, "Grandps Fluffy" by his eight grandchildren and how his great grandchildren also refer to him as such.  The nick name came about because Maurice often referred to his wife (Florence Christensen ) as "Fluffy."  "Grandma and Grandpa Fluffy" became their grandparent terms. 

Maurice was born near Melbourne, Australia; lived most of his childhood near Adelaide, and immigrated to America in 1930.  He became a citizen of the United States on 24 March 1937.  The link below will take you to a copy of his birth certificate and citizenship certificate.  There is also a copy of an article appearing in the newspaper, "Ogden Standard Examiner" announcing his citizenship. 
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10071252/Lee-Thomas%2C%20Maurice%20-%20Birth%20%26%20Naturalization%20Records.pdf

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Thomas Henry Lee Photo

A real "treasure" is what I would say about this photo.  This is Thomas Henry Lee (known as Henry Lee-Thomas at the time of this photo) with his wife Ruby Ellen Thredgold.  The youngster in the middle of the picture is Maurice Reginald Lee-Thomas.  Maurice is my father and the only child of Henry.  A military uniform is on Henry so this could has been taken before he left with the Australian Army or possibly he was home on a leave.    A framed copy of this is in my office where I see it each time I go there.  I'm not sure if my copy is the original, but it is in the frame that I inherited from Maurice.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Long Pause

Soon after arriving home from vacation, I got busy and posted on April 10, 2011.  As I went to view my blog, the link to the Henry Lee-Thomas burial information wouldn't open.  I couldn't figure out what was going on by myelf, so finally contacted an IT person who figured it out today.  I had been making my posts and links via "Internet Explorer."  Just a few weeks ago, I switched to "Google Chrome" as my Internet Browser.  Come to find out "Chrome" doesn't make the correct links for the blog.  I must remember to use "Explorer" when working on blogs.  I plan to get back to routine posting schedule now. Please go to the April archive to find the April 10 post with picture of the Henry Lee-Thomas burial site.   By the way, I just purchased a new computer.  It's a Lenovo ThinkPad.  It came from Costco.com so there are 90 days to try it out.  So far, I love it (except for getting it set up).

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Henry Lee-Thomas: Burial Information

Henry Lee-Thomas was buried in Belgium.

Some years ago a cousin from Australia, Margaret Lee Haag (cousin to Alan Lee who we visited in 2008), went to Belgium and found this war Memorial.  Margaret was instrumental in finding me and my brother Stephen Lee-Thomas and connecting us to the family in Perth.   She went on a search for living descendants of Henry Lee-Thomas some years ago.   The family in Western Australia knew nothing of Henry's descendants except that he had married Ruby Thredgold.  She kept up her search until she found Steve and I in 1995.  She died a few years later and gave all of her genealogy information to Alan Lee. Margaret and Alan are both my second cousins.

The war memorial can be seen at the below link.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10071252/Henry%20Lee-Thomas%20Burial.pdf

Pause in Blog Posts

Two weeks ago I left for a very fun family vacation to Oceanside, California; Disneyland, Beach, and San Diego Zoo.  That meant a break from my Family History work including Blog work.  There will be pictures of that adventure posted on my Blog "MM's Memories and Miscellaneous" some time in the future.  Now I am back and ready to keep up this Blog and get information out there to all you family members.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Lee-Thomas, Henry: Birth, Military Death Record

"Thomas Henry Lee" is his name as it appears on his birth record.  The death military record gives his name as "Henry Lee-Thomas."  The Previously posted "Attestation Papers" listed his age when joining the militry as age "27".  Some where between his birth and joining the military, he changed his name.  The reason for this remains a mystery.  He was born in Majorca, Victoria, Australia.  His siblings were also all born in Victoria. This is more near Adelaide where his wife, Ruby Thredgold is from.   The Lee family moved to Western Australia.  The Attestation Papers he reports his birth as being in Western Australia.  This is inconsistent with his actual birth record.    However; there is a farm in Western Australia which I visited in 2008 which the family there reported as "Young Henry's Farm."  I don't know if he ever lived there or if the famiy was saving him a plot.  Here are more links to some of his records:  Birth:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10071252/Thomas%20Henry%20Lee%20-%20Birth%20Record.doc

 Military:  Shows service record and that he died in action. 
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10071252/Lee-Thomas%2C%20Henry%20-%20Military%20Record.doc

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Lee-Thomas, Henry Military Attestation Papers & Funeral Program

The links below will take you to the "Australia Imperial Force of Persons Enlisted for Service Abroad": Attestation papers of Henry Lee-Thomas (Thomas Henry Lee).  There are four pages to this document.  Notice his signature on page 2 and a physical description of him on page 3.  Also, note on the first page that his name started to be written with the first name of  "Thomas" and that was crossed out and the name of "Henry Lee-Thomas" written instead. 

There is also a link to his funeral program which includes a picture.  He was a very handsome man.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10071252/Lee-Thomas%20Henry%2C%20Attestation%20Papers.pdf

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10071252/Henry%20Lee-Thomas%20Death%20Memorial.doc

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Objectives

     The objective of this blog is to eventually post all of the pictures, documents, pedigree charts, that I have on the Lee, Thredgold, Christensen, and Hopson lines.  I want this information on the web so it can be enjoyed by all who are related or interested.  I think there are some choice tidbits and information in my possession.  As I make these posts, I will label pictures, etc. with one of the four lines mentioned on the left side bar. 
     Many of the pictures and documents I have were saved and inherited by me upon the death of my parents, Maurice & Florence (Christensen) Lee-Thomas.  Upon the death of my parents, these things were loaded to a wooden trunk and  kept there at my brother's home in California for over twenty years. 
     The Spirit of Elijah came upon me six or so years ago.  I traveled to my brother's home and brought the contents of the trunk to my home.  I have since been busy scanning, digitizing, and organizing these items.  It has been no easy task, but I am plugging away. 
     The experiences have been amazing as I've embarked on this undertaking.  I could write pages.  Some of these experiences will come out, I'm sure as I continue this blog.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Lee Pedigree Chart/Family Group Sheet

THOMAS HENRY LEE  (this is the name on his birth certificate) b. 19 Mar 1888.  Some time between his birth and marriage to Ruby Thredgold, he changed his name to Henry Lee-Thomas.  Henry died in World War I.  Maurice Reginald lee-Thomas  was his only child.  
Henry Lee-Thomas is the  Father of:  Maurice Reginald Lee-Thomas (my father) b. 6 May 1913. 
Henry Lee-Thoma is the paternal grandfather of:  Mary Margaret Lee-Thomas
In the weeks ahead, I will be posting certificates, pictures, documents I have on this family. 

I am starting this pedigree with Thomas Henry Lee in order to keep my four grandparent's lines separate. 
Pedigree Chart beginning with Thomas Henry Lee can be viewed at the following link. (Left click on the link and a small box will appear below.  Click on that box to take you to the documents).  Feel free to copy or download any of these files. 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10071252/Thomas%20Henry%20Lee%20Pedigree%20Chart.pdf

Family Group Record of Thomas Henry Lee can be veiwed at the following link. 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10071252/Thomas%20Henry%20Lee%20Family%20Group%20Record.pdf